Reuters - November 27, 1999
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Fierce Russian artillery attacks against
Grozny on Saturday sent more refugees fleeing the fighting but
military sources indicated they were not about to storm
Chechnya's burning capital.
Moscow's forces were on the doorstep of Grozny and military
officials have vowed that the two-month-old campaign to destroy
Islamic militants in the breakaway region would not end until
Russia was victorious.
Interfax news agency quoted sources in Russia's main
military base of Mozdok outside Chechnya as saying its troops
would ``free'' the capital of the rebels blamed for terrorist
attacks in Russia, but ``they ruled out taking the town by
storm.''
The sources said they preferred to continue bombing the
rebels, their bases and strongholds in Grozny from the air and
pounding targets with artillery and rockets from nearby heights.
Russian commanders said on Friday the third phase of the war
against Chechnya was aimed at pursuing the rebels into densely
populated mountains of southern Chechnya.
A correspondent for NTV television said from Mozdok that
soldiers had launched heavy artillery fire on the capital and
Chechens were fleeing the fighting to the south-east. Warplanes
had increased their sorties over the capital in clear but
freezing cold weather, he said.
Thousands of Chechens were cowering in cellars and awaiting
an assault.
``There is a dense smog over the Chechen capital,'' the
Chechen-led Internet web site reported, adding that 320
civilians had been killed over the last two days.
Interfax reported that the bombing raids and shelling had
destroyed hundreds of houses, with roofs torn off and windows
and doors shattered in those left standing.
RUSSIAN TROOPS CONTINUE THE ADVANCE
After a relentless advance from east and the west, Russian
forces now control about half of the lowland valley south of the
capital where most Chechens live. They have nearly encircled the
capital itself and say it will be surrounded by December.
The next phase of the campaign is certain to be more
dangerous for Russian troops than the fighting so far.
By saving for last the two toughest tasks -- confronting the
capital and pursuing the guerrillas into the mountains -- Russia
has so far avoided the early defeats that crushed the morale of
its troops during the disastrous 1994-96 Chechen war.
But Russian generals have vowed that troops will continue to
fight until they have destroyed all the Islamic militants,
blamed for a series of devastating bomb blasts in Moscow and
other cities.
``We will continue fighting in Chechnya until Russia is
victorious,'' NTV television quoted the chief-of-staff of
Russia's armed forces, Anatoly Kvashnin, as saying.
But in an incident that called into question the discipline
of Russian troops, military authorities arrested five soldiers
suspected of opening fire on a stall in a region bordering
Chechnya, killing a young woman and injuring two other people.
The men were believed to have been drunk.
First deputy commander of the 58th army, Alexei Verbisky,
told Reuters correspondent Maria Eismont in Ingushetia that the
four soldiers and one sergeant had admitted their guilt.
Copyright 1999, Reuters News Service
You are here: Home > NewsCenter > News > Story
